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Case Study

Kandou Bus, From start-up to IPO? (A): The Start-Up

By Jim Pulcrano, Adel Choi, Dipendra Jain, Alexandra Pimshteyn and Darrel Ronald

18 pages

July 2023

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Reference: IMD-7-2458

Dr Amin Shokrollahi, a mathematician who loves research, becomes an entrepreneur by accident. He discovers a software solution to decelerate Moore’s Law, and his friend, entrepreneur Steve Papa, pushes him to create a company and bring the solution to market. For five years they “wander in the woods” building the team, raising money, developing the technology, fruitlessly talking with potential customers and working with some of the world’s most important technology companies… but without commercial success.

Learning Objective

Put participants in the shoes of an entrepreneur who has what seems to be an amazing breakthrough, but finds it difficult to bring it to market.
Coming from outside an industry sometimes gives us new insights into old problems.

Keywords

Business to Business, Disruption, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Strategy, Semiconductor, Chip, Electronics, Moore's Law, Start-up, Initial Public Offering

Settings

Kandou Bus, Materials, Semiconductors, Information Technology, Computer Services, Manufacturing, Electric and Electronic Equipment
2010-2022

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note

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